E3 09: Heroes of Telara

I will readily admit that I'm easily sucked in by a well put together MMO. So it should be no surprise that sitting me in front of the above trailer and a demo for Heroes of Telara from Trion had me drooling instantly. After the trailer, they then had one of the head designers sit down and talk about how the server architecture is setup not to be geographically based like most MMOs and instead be more process driven, they had the programmer side of me hooked as well. While the technical server info might not matter to most people, what the folks at Trion have done allows an MMO to worry less about having too many players in one area which means they can encourage and foster social interactions which is exactly what this game promotes.

One of the major points that Heroes of Telara boasts is that the entire world and the quests, missions, and people it contains are dynamic. This means that you won't see the same quest at the same location everytime you pass, same battles in the same locales every day, and that the effects of you and your enemies oppose upon the world can often be seen for days after they happen.

Another great feature of the game is that any character in the game can be any of the four major class types at any time, and you can level each class type up seperately, so no more looking for a tank or healer when you can instantly be one yourself. On top of the major class types, there are also subclass 'cards' that you can find in the world that give you more specific actions and abilities. Luckily you won't have to level up the subclasses separately, since they take on the same power as its major class level.

On top of all of that, the game's graphics look fantastic, giving you great characters and scenery. Plus, the way that they servers are setup allows for the game to render very long draw distances without worry of latency, which means you can actually stop and enjoy the landscape as you travel through it.

Overall I was greatly impressed by the demo shown at E3 of this budding MMO and hope to see plenty more news from the company as the game progresses. I had plenty of questions to ask, and was told that they are still working out a number of the other systems in the game. Keep your eyes on Trion too, since they are also working on a yet-to-be revealed RTS MMO, and an Action RPG MMO. With the way that Heroes of Telara is progressing, I'm sure there is plenty to be seen in those franchises as well.